Jesus "Chucho" Perales, who was the guitarist for the rock 'n' roll band Mando & the Chili Peppers, is very close his family. He is shown with his son, Vincent at home on Nov. 8, 2012.

Jesus "Chucho" Perales, who was the guitarist for the rock 'n' roll band Mando & the Chili Peppers, is very close his family. He is shown with his son, Vincent at home on Nov. 8, 2012.

Photo: Billy Calzada, Staff

Chicano rocker Jesus 'Chucho' Perales reflects on his life, music

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San Antonio's first Chicano rock 'n' roller is finding out firsthand what Chuck Berry meant when he sang, "Can't stop the train, gotta let it roll on."

For guitarist Jesus "Chucho" Perales - who backed conjunto greats such as Valerio Longoria and played in the first Chicano rock 'n' roll band Mando &amp; the Chili Peppers - that means facing the reality of aggressive prostate cancer and pulmonary fibrosis.

Perales, 76, recounted the words his doctor told him last year as they looked at the ominous X-ray revealing the progressive lung disease.

"Nobody can do anything about that one," he said. "But we can keep you going with inhalers."

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It actually takes two oxygen machines these days. He needs a wheelchair sometimes, too.

In March, his prostate cancer was diagnosed.

Perales' wife, Raquel, and two of his sons, Vincent and Ernest, are his primary caretakers. These days, aspiring author Vincent makes a point of hugging his dad every time he enters the room. Perales is kept company, too, by his dogs Brilla and Ike (named for Hurricane Ike).

In person, he looks great, and his signature sense of humor is intact.

"Looks can be deceiving," Perales said during an interview at his home. "I'm housebroken."

He's upbeat and determined - but resigned. He was told that he wouldn't survive the long operation required to address his cancer because of his untreatable lung condition, which may have been undiagnosed for years. He recently completed 45 radiation treatments.

Perales has a message for all musicians, especially Hispanics, about getting regular prostate exams. A biopsy revealed his cancer.

"Mexicanos don't check their prostates because they're too damn macho," he said. "Chicanos aren't gonna allow anybody to give them a complete examination. Just a checkup. They call it 'the Roto-Rooter,' 'the finger,' 'the round and round.' That attitude will get you.

"I laugh because I can't cry," he added. "My advice to anyone: If you have a pain, go get it checked."

He doesn't play guitar too much these days though he will take the time to show students a guitar lick if they come around to his home, where a cherished photo of Perales is displayed in the front room. He is 10 years old, posing with his prized Regal 12-string guitar and fingering a perfect A-chord.

Perales doesn't get out too much, either.

"I feel safer here than any place because I've got everything I need to help myself," he said.

Walking up a few front porch steps leaves him feeling like he's run a marathon. Such is his shortness of breath.

It's frustrating because Perales had a reputation for being a high-energy guy.

"The younger guys couldn't keep up with me," he said. "We'd get down to jam, and I was the first one there and the last one to leave."

He wonders aloud if maybe his father's occupation (Enrique "Henry" Perales was a contractor that worked with cement) may have played a role in the development of his lung disease.

"I was always covered in cement dust," he said. "And I worked with insulation."

But it was also his path to music. He was 8 when he picked out his first guitar, a gift from Alamo Music founder Alfred Flores Sr. for helping his father install a new floor in a building on East Houston that Flores converted to a warehouse.

Perales recalled walking into the music store, which at that time was at Commerce and Soledad.

"The one that I liked, I called it my Gene Autry guitar because it had a horse on its hind legs and a cactus and a moon in the background," he said. "I said, 'I like this.' I don't know how I got it tuned."

He picked up basic chords from his father and uncles, but there was a problem.

"He was my mentor on guitar," said Perales, recalling dutifully walking the unpaved streets on the West Side to get lessons. By the time he was 10, Perales was singing songs such as "Margarita" and "Morena Morenita" on radio station KIWW, located on the second floor of the Alameda Theater, and playing in bars such as Chico's and La Cita nightclubs.

It was there that he first met Rosita Fernandez and Trio Los Panchos. He's still stirred by the memory of "the Indian head carved on the riquinto" guitar.

"It was beautiful," he said.

He learned songs off the radio - KCOR, KIWW, KEXX and KBOP. By the time he was 14, he was playing rough joints with Valerio Longoria, "who respected me like his own mother."

"He was a fighter and would jump off the bandstand and get into it," recalled Perales, who also wrote songs recorded by Conjunto Bernal.

Perales met Armando "Mando" Almendarez in the late 1940s and he joined the Chili Peppers in the early 1950s. They were regulars on local TV and radio. In time they would perform at the Dunes in Las Vegas and become the first Chicanos on "American Bandstand."

By the time Perales switched to electric guitar (a Gibson Les Paul Jr.) in 1955, the band was known regionally, as well as in California, mixing Mexican polkas, blues and rock 'n' roll and backing up Ritchie Valens, Johnny Otis, the Champs and Duane Eddy.

Valens once let Perales use his amplifier.

"Mine blew up," he said. "He was a nice kid."

The Chili Peppers' 1958 vinyl album "On the Road with Rock 'N Roll" is a holy grail among record collectors. It produced a Billboard hit, "South of the Border."

"Mando used to sing half-Spanish and half-English and all English before even I knew him," Perales said. "He was crossover before there was crossover."